Best Cloud Storage Services for Video 2020

Whether it’s home videos, vacation snaps or those once-in-a-lifetime memories you’re looking to save, ensuring you have enough storage to save your videos is essential. Rather than risk them on a local hard drive, you should think about cloud storage. 

This takes the hassle out of storing your video collection, especially with ever-growing video resolutions (and file sizes). To help you decide which is the best cloud storage service for video, we’ve put together a short list to help you sift through the good, the bad and the truly ugly. We’ve got eight providers for you to take a look at, each with their own pros and cons.

What Is the Best Cloud Storage for Video?

We’ll tell you straight away that pCloud is the service we recommend as the best cloud storage for video at the moment. It comes with storage up to 2TB, no file size limits, an integrated media player and mobile apps that will automatically upload your videos as you take them. However, we have a full ranking below.

1. pCloud – Best overall video cloud storage
2. Sync.com – Best for secure video storage
3. Google Drive – Best for collaboration
4. MEGA – Free video cloud storage solution
5. Amazon Drive – Great solution for Prime members
6. Dropbox – 2GB of free video storage
7. SugarSync – Good for solution for smaller teams
8. Box – Best video storage and collaboration for business

Sync.com isn’t far behind in second place, and our other providers aren’t too bad, either. Let’s go through each provider to help you make your decision.

1. pCloud

We’ll start with our top choice for video cloud storage. This has long been one of our favorites, and as we talked about in our pCloud review, there are a lot of pros, including its top security features, affordable storage plans, great sharing options (making it one of the best cloud storage for sharing) and a built-in media player that plays major video formats. It works well on both desktop as well as its mobile app, too (find out how to set up pCloud Drive).

If you’re working with large 4K or 8K video files, you’ll be happy with pCloud. It doesn’t restrict you by file size, meaning you can upload huge video files without any issues. It also comes, as we’ve mentioned, with a built-in media player that’ll let you watch your saved videos from your favorite web browser.

The pCloud media player may need to convert these videos for you before it plays them back, but it does this automatically. It won’t replace your original files, but it will give you a web-friendly copy that you can play without issue over the internet.

Mobile devices are well supported, too. Its Android and iOS apps allow you to access your online cloud drive, and its automatic uploading makes it easy for you to continuously backup your files (pCloud is our best cloud storage for Android, too).

pCloud Offers

You don’t need to pay to trial pCloud’s services, simply entering your email address will do. With free online storage of up to 10GB, you’re able to try most of the features on offer without paying a thing. Paid plans start at pCloud, with hard drive-sized plans equivalent to 500GB or 2TB.

Only password protection and expiry dates for public files are excluded from the free plan, as is zero-knowledge encryption. If you’re worried about your video security, you’ll need to subscribe to a paid plan.

pCloud Review

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2. Sync.com

If pCloud wasn’t in the picture, then Sync.com would be our number-one option. As it stands, however, it’s a worthy runner up, and it still counts as one of the best cloud storage for pictures and video, as our earlier Sync.com review shows.

We’ll start with privacy laws. As a Canadian-based company, Sync.com takes advantage of one of the best and most supportive privacy laws in the world. This explains why it takes a high ranking in our most secure cloud storage shortlist, too.

Like pCloud, Sync.com has a free plan with a generous referral system. Out of the box, Sync.com offers a fairly limited 5GB of storage, which is half the storage that pCloud offers for free. You can expand this, however, with up to 20GB in extra storage, thanks to new-user referrals. Each signup you gain adds an additional 1GB to your storage limit.

This takes a bit of effort, but it’s a more generous position than pCloud or other providers like MEGA, which has a policy of adding storage for referrals that expires within a year.

Sync.com Cloud Storage Pricing

Sync.com offers storage plans from 200GB to 4TB, ranging from $60 to $180 per year. For your subscription, you gain top-level security for your video files, with one of the best zero-knowledge cloud storage solutions in the market. AES 256-bit encryption is offered, along with two-factor authentication to keep your account secure from hackers (it’s also our best encrypted cloud storage provider).

You also gain a healthy amount of practical features for your money, too. Sync.com offers file versioning for up to a month, password protection to protect your most sensitive videos and a powerful account system that lets you monitor access to your account. You can also remotely remove access to users and wipe files from linked devices.

Sync.com subscribers don’t need to worry about file sizes, either. Like pCloud, Sync.com has no file limits, meaning your videos can be as large as you need them to be. Unfortunately, while pCloud allows media playback directly from its website or supplied app, Sync.com doesn’t provide this feature.

If you’re curious about the differences between Sync.com and pCloud, you can take a look at our Sync.com vs. pCloud review.

Sync.com Review

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3. Google Drive

As the first of the massive tech companies to hit this list, Google Drive earns a generous third place on our best cloud storage for video files shortlist. It’s a good all-round provider, thanks to a powerful, integrated office suite that rivals Microsoft Office and 15GB of free storage space, as our earlier Google Drive review explains.

If you have a Google account, you already know what you’re dealing with when it comes to Google Drive. The included Drive storage spreads across the entire Google product suite, from Gmail to Google Photos, and their associated mobile apps. 

Unlike Sync.com, Google doesn’t have a stellar reputation for privacy. Previous incidents where Google has tampered with files, terminating the accounts of any user it disapproves of, could be concerning. 

The best thing to do, especially with no included encryption for files offered, is to use Google Drive with a solution like Boxcryptor for the best protection.

Unlimited Video Storage

What makes Google Drive stand out, especially compared to some of the other providers on this list, is that it offers unlimited photo and video storage, making it one of the best online storage for photos and video (not to mention being the best online backup for photos). This means photos and videos won’t apply to your free 15GB limit or to any subsequent paid storage limits.

You also have several ways to share videos directly on social media, which is a big plus if you’re big into keeping your Facebook and Instagram accounts up to date.

Before you rush to open a Google account, there are some important caveats, as only certain video formats are included in the unlimited file storage. You’ll need to use the “high quality” backup option to convert your videos to 1080p quality using the Google Photos app, or they’ll count toward your overall Google Drive storage limit.

With 15GB of storage included for free, this won’t let you save too many 1080p or higher-quality videos. For that, you’ll need to think about paying for extra, with Google Drive pricing starting at $19.99 per year for 100GB of extra storage, up to 2TB for $99.99 per year. 

A paid subscription will unlock the ability to share your larger storage limit with other family members, making Google Drive a good option for collating a large family album with your most precious memories (Google Drive is one of our best cloud storage for families picks).

The service isn’t perfect (it lacks block-level copying, so it’ll be a little slow to upload your files), but it’s also one of the easiest cloud services you could choose to use, with a good user interface and cheap pricing.

Google Drive Review

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4. MEGA

MEGA is a frequent mention on our cloud storage shortlists because of an impressively generous free plan that offers up to 50GB of storage space without any payments required.

It styles itself as “the privacy company” and, as our MEGA review explains, this isn’t an unfair assessment, even with the controversy surrounding Kim Dotcom, the founder of MEGA.

Although he’s no longer involved in MEGA’s operations, Dotcom’s determination to build an encryption haven for data — free from government interference — remains.

Free Cloud Storage

Impressive as the name is, what’s more eye-catching is the amount of online storage that MEGA offers. There are some loops you have to jump through to obtain the free 50GB, but it’s significantly more generous than the free plans offered by some of its other competitors.

New MEGA users start with 15GB of storage, with an additional 35GB attached for 30 days. Another 10GB, 15GB and 20GB of storage can be added to your account by referring new users and installing the desktop and mobile apps. However, these will expire after a certain number of days (between 180 and 365 days, depending on the achievement.)

Once you’re back to the default 15GB of free storage, you’ll need to refer users to keep your limits up, if you’re not prepared to pay. Each signup earns you an extra 10GB, however. Otherwise, you’ll need to look at paying for a MEGA subscription.

This is another stand-out area, with MEGA offering from 200GB to a whopping 8TB of storage, from between $5 and $30 per month. There are some transfer limits (from 1TB to 16TB), which could impact you if you’re thinking of accessing your collection a lot.

It isn’t as cheap as our top option, pCloud, but it does offer more storage, with a maximum 8TB versus pCloud’s maximum of 2TB. It isn’t just about the storage, though, as you’ll gain access to a number of premium features, including a secure chat facility and file versioning for regular file updates.

MEGA Review

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5. Amazon Drive

As one of the big tech companies, Amazon can deliver its cloud storage solution at a cheaper cost than competitors like MEGA. Amazon Drive is the result, and although our Amazon Drive review shows it isn’t without issues, it’s certainly a worthy contender to be in our top five.

One of Amazon Drive’s big, standout features is its unlimited photo storage. If you’re looking for a service that can act as the ultimate vault for your home videos and photos, this is a contender, especially as it comes free for Amazon Prime members.

If you’re living under a rock, Amazon Prime is Amazon’s subscription package that includes free next-day delivery for Amazon products, along with other online services including Amazon Prime Video (with movies and TV streaming) and the free 5GB of storage that Amazon Drive provides.

Amazon Drive Pricing

It’s a shame that the unlimited storage doesn’t stretch to include video, but it’s still worth considering Amazon Drive. You’ll need to increase your storage to save a lot of video content, though. Amazon Drive’s 100GB will set you back $19.99 per year, while 1TB of storage will cost you $59.99 per year. 

However, you’ll need to remember the upfront cost for Amazon Prime. Any extra storage you buy will be on top of the Prime subscription, which costs $119 per year. Unlike Google Drive, it offers block-level copying, with comprehensive tools included in its desktop apps to help you limit your sync speeds and prevent a slowdown.

On the bright side, this heavy integration means you can play your own video content in the Amazon Prime app, available for your TV and mobile devices.

Amazon Cloud Drive Review

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6. Dropbox

Although it isn’t the best cloud storage for streaming video, Dropbox’s built-in media player and reasonably cheap storage plans make it a potential option for those who are looking for a simple, easy-to-use online provider for their video collection, as our Dropbox review explores.

We emphasize “cheap” because, although Dropbox does offer a free plan, you’re limited to 2GB. This is tiny for any potential video collection, meaning you’ll need to pay out if you’re thinking about using Dropbox, or you’ll need to hit the referrals hard, with 500MB added for each signup you obtain.

Its features are limited, too. You can share files, but you can’t password-protect them or add expiry dates to any public links to files that you create. It’s a fast provider, though, with block-level file syncing to speed up the process. Read our Dropbox file size limit guide.

Dropbox also allows you to play your video files straight from the browser, without requiring a third-party app.

Dropbox Pricing

Although it’s still quite cheap, unfortunately Dropbox isn’t the most competitive provider. A look at Dropbox vs. Google Drive shows that, for the same amount of 2TB storage, you’ll pay double with Dropbox ($99.99 vs. $198.96 per year).

Dropbox does offer a cheaper plan, with 1TB of storage offered at $99 per year (or $9.99 per month on the monthly plan). The best plan, however, is the unlimited cloud storage plan, which we’ve previously rated as one of the best unlimited online storage plans in the market.

For $240 per year (or $25 per month on the monthly plan), you’ll gain unlimited file storage. This is a costly option but could work well for users with a very large collection of videos. Dropbox also comes with simple, install-and-forget apps for Android, iOS, macOS and Windows. 

As the father of modern cloud providers, Dropbox has a lot of positives, but that hasn’t always been the case. Previous data breaches and a lack of zero-knowledge encryption could be off-putting for the privacy-focused, especially for sensitive videos, and it’s one of the reasons it lost in our pCloud vs Dropbox battle. Read our Dropbox vs Google Drive vs OneDrive piece to see how it compares to other cloud storage providers.

Dropbox Review

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7. Box

Box probably wouldn’t be the first cloud drive you’d think of to host your video collection. For a start, as our Box review explains, Box is primarily an enterprise storage solution that focuses more on its productivity apps than any particular focus on video storage.

That said, with unlimited storage plans available, Box could well be one of the best cloud storage for video editors. It’s become one of the best EFSS services, with private file encryption and integration with both major office suites, Microsoft Office and Google Docs.

Box looks a lot like Dropbox, especially its web client, with a similar user experience to boot. File syncing makes it easy to share video files between all of your devices, including your mobile devices.

As it offers business plans, Box guarantees the maximum possible security for your files, with AES 256-bit encryption and regular penetration testing scheduled to limit the chance of a damaging data breach. 

Box Pricing

For 100GB of storage on the basic Starter plan, Box is more expensive than options like Google Drive, which charges $19.99 per year for the same amount of storage. Unlimited storage starts at $17.30 per month.

The one downside, especially if you’re looking to store large video files, is the limited file size. Box has a file size limit of 5GB, which is quite poor, especially compared to some of the other providers on this list.

Many of the features Box offers are focused on business customers and won’t be relevant for a personal user. However, its strong security, the potential for unlimited storage and its public files’ password protection and expiration dates could make this a left-field storage option for your video collection.

Box Review

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8. SugarSync

SugarSync could be one of the greats, but it isn’t, as our SugarSync review explores in greater depth. Pricey and limited on features, it isn’t the first provider you’d think of if you were looking for cloud storage for your videos. For a start, there’s no built-in media player, and the price plans on offer are extremely expensive compared to the other players in the market.

The only real benefit of this service, if you can call it a benefit, is speed. Upload speeds are decent, although download speeds can be pretty slow. Unfortunately, everything else that we could cover about SugarSync points toward using another provider like pCloud instead.

Expensive Without Reason

Described on the SugarSync website as the “most popular” package, 250GB of storage costs $9.99 per month. Meanwhile, 100GB costs $7.49 per month and 500GB costs a whopping $18.95 per month.

Let’s compare that to pCloud, which offers 500GB of storage space for $4.99 per month. Over a year, you’d pay $167.52 extra with a SugarSync subscription. That figure alone should be enough to put you off, but if it doesn’t, a dated interface and a lack of any kind of built-in media player probably would.

Another major downside is a lack of any media playback features built-in. Video lovers, cross SugarSync off your list and go for pCloud, Sync.com or Google Drive instead.

SugarSync Review

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How We Picked Our Providers

We use the same approach for each of our cloud storage providers and roundups. Big players don’t get a free pass, and we consider each provider on its merits. We look at storage, security, features, pricing and the overall ease of use before we rank them in our lists.

Quality is king, which is why we’re big fans of cloud storage services like pCloud, but it’s also why we’re not afraid to mention mediocre contenders like SugarSync to give you the overall picture of the market — warts and all.

Final Thoughts

Eight online storage providers later, we’re hoping you’ve come to a decision and picked a storage plan that’s best for your video collection. If you still aren’t sure, almost all of the providers listed here offer a free plan to tempt you, including our top recommendation, pCloud.

If pCloud isn’t the option for you, then top-quality alternatives such as Sync.com, Google Drive and MEGA could be the solution. Each service has its own pros and cons, but you may need to look at the individual reviews for each provider before you make a final decision.

If you’ve used any of the services on this list, or if you’re keen to expand on or disagree with what we’ve said, then please leave us a comment below this article. Thanks for reading!

pCloud Review

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